Question Choosing an intel LGA1150 processor to upgrade my older rig with

Nov 20, 2019
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Hello!

I am trying to choose a suitable intel 1150 processor to upgrade my trusty old rig with, and I am not sure what the best course of action is for my situation.
I put the PC together myself so I do know a bit about hardware, but I am a layman and my insight is limited.
The point of the upgrade (from a bottle-necking i3-4130) is to try and squeeze the most performance possible out of the rig, which I plan to use for at least a few more years.
I use it for work, everyday tasks and gaming, although since the other functions are not really very taxing (I dont do graphic design stuff etc), gaming performance is the big factor here.
Since the system is a bit old and was never high end, I am looking to invest whatever makes the most sense from a price/performance viewpoint.

My system:

Motherboard: GA-B85-HD3
GPU: Radeon R9 280x Royal Queen
System disk: Crucial MX100
RAM: 16gb, 4x4gb DDR3 1600Mhz
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64 bit
Monitor resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz, which is what i tend to game at

- After a bit of research i came upon i5-4590 or i5-4690 as good, cheap options for pairing with my GPU. Would going above that to say i7-4770 or i7-4790 make a noticable difference at all? The price difference is ofcourse quite steep, which is a factor.

- Is it worth buying a used, (or rather"renewed" as they put it) CPU from places like amazon and newegg? I read that CPUs tend to be a good used option since they are supposed to be sturdier than GPUs for example? In any case i am going to wait for the black friday period to see if i can find a good deal somewhere.

- Should i consider upgrading the system SSD aswell, or is it not a big concern according to my other hardware?

- The ram i am using is two pairs of 4gb from different brands, and with a bit different specs. I started with 2x4gb and later a friend gave me the other 2x4gb he had gathering dust, and since it works i havent been bothering myself about that - should i have? Heres a CPU-Z report pastebin for detailed info: https://pastebin.com/Bj4sEwRW

Thank you!
 
Last edited:
Nov 20, 2019
2
0
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What is the absolute maximum you could spend?

If you find a 4590 for dirt cheap then it could be worth it. I found one for free while digging through some systems some company had tossed.

Basically whatever gives me the most bang for my buck, and whatever makes the most sense to squeeze as much as i can from an older machine like this for a few more years.

I found a used 4690K on a local used gear site for 66€/73$ for example (I am in Europe), but id easily go twice that amount or more if it would be worth it. As long as the pins are fine, should i still worry about buying used?

Would going into the i7 range be complete overkill then?

Thanks!
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Nowadays I would actually look at the i7's for the additional threads as newer games could utilize them but if pricing is above like €180 or so then it's really not worth it as then you might as well consider going with AMD Ryzen.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (€119.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (€71.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€56.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €248.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 23:20 CET+0100